​EIHTX and Power House Texas Present

​Distributed Energy: How DERs, Flexibility and Demand-Side Solutions are Reshaping the Grid

​The rise of distributed energy resources (DERs) may be the most important mega-trend reshaping the grid as we know it today.

​At a time when data-centers, load growth and rising utility rates occupy the headlines, DERs are driving a fundamental restructuring of the grid. As 4 billion behind-the-meter assets—think EVs, rooftop solar, customer-sited batteries, smart thermostats or heat pumps—connect to the global grid over the next 10 years, capacity and complexity move to the grid edge. By 2035, these behind-the-meter assets will represent over 30% of total grid capacity and generate over 90% of the critical data needed to operate the grid.
While complexity explodes, DERs also offer solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the grid: flexibility and demand-side solutions. Coordinated dispatch of DERs, such as Demand-response, virtual power plants, and peak shaving, increase utilization of the grid we have already built. By shaping load, DERs make generation and demand increasingly economic equivalent. And by smoothing the same electrons in time, demand-side flexibility increases the utilization of existing infrastructure, lowering utility rates.

​As data centers are increasingly required to connect as flexible large loads, DERs and demand-side solutions offer the missing piece to optimizable grid, pointing toward a reimagining of the grid. In this panel we convene leading figures from across the grid, tech and policy to explore this fascinating and consequential topic.

​Timing, agenda:

• ​Thursday, May 21st

• ​5:30 – 6:15pm: Drinks, apps and snacks, networking

• ​6:15 – 6:20: Welcome and opening remarks

• ​6:20- 7:15 pm: Panel discussion

• ​7:15 – 8:30pm: More drinks, apps, snacks and networking